The Indisputable Key to Your Health & Fitness Success—and How to Make it Happen
I’ve never heard of an overnight success.
Even the one hit wonders put in years of hard work before that one fateful track.
The key to it all is consistency.
Showing up every day and applying some kind of effort, over time, adds up to big gains that move you closer to your goals.
Which couldn’t be more true for those things like losing weight, getting stronger or faster, or being healthier. We all know those things don’t happen overnight, but is a long term pursuit that needs consistent effort.
And there will always be roadblocks in the way of that effort.
Things that stop the ball from rolling. But if you can give it a little nudge in the right direction, you will gain some momentum. The next push is easier and now you’re rolling. Pretty soon it’s going downhill and unstoppable.
The question is how to get the ball rolling?
First, start with a proper goal. One that is specific and measurable.
(Click HERE to read more about setting SMART Goals.)
Then with your goal in mind, lay out a plan to achieve it. But to keep moving forward, make sure your strategy is supported by these 3 pillars to consistency.
Is it Practical?
The most important variable for success…
Can you do this daily?
I spend a ton of my time explaining how our exercise program works so well for shoulder pain. Yeah, there’s medical and science things to it, but most importantly, it gets past the reasons why rehab exercises don’t get done.
A checklist of 7 exercises, with things like a chart and attachments, is practical for someone. It gets done daily. Unlike a book of 100 great shoulder exercises, or the latest guru’s program, or a 30-minute stretch routine.
Other practical examples include the successful ways people find to lose weight. Things like intermittent fasting, cutting carbs, or 20-minute bootcamps. These “tricks” cut out complexity for solutions that people can adhere to on a daily basis.
Now, apply the same strategy to your goal.
What are the seven actions that will help you achieve your goal? The caveat being, you’ve got to say, “Yeah, I can do that every day.”
Create Some Structure
It takes motivation to get the ball rolling. But that’s hard to do, and when you find it, it doesn’t stick around for long.
That’s because we focus too much on the massive task at hand.
But like they say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” So instead of looking at your goals as one huge problem, approach it with a stepwise plan.
Identify milestones on your road to success.
For those milestones, create steps to help you achieve those things.
And then for those steps, create microsteps to achieve those.
Akin to Dave Ramsey’s snowball method for tackling debt. Pay off small ones first, to motivate and accumulate resources to attack the bigger ones.
Like, check me out…I workout at 530am on most days of the week. Not trying to brag, but lots of people say, “I’m not motivated enough to do that.”
Well, here’s my motivation, which happens the night before:
- Of course, it starts with coffee. I make it the night before and set a timer to auto brew. The ball is rolling…starting the chain of events.
- Get out my gym attire for the morning and put my keys by the door.
- Review my workout for the morning and figure out my weights and strategy.
It’s not a quote or slogan or rap music. It’s the structure of meeting small objectives for the gym that provides the ultimate motivation.
In the morning, it’s not always lingering, so I’ve got more structure…
- Wake-up, pour a cup of coffee (it’s a pretty big cup), and drink a protein shake.
- When I get to the gym, I’ve got a warm-up process: a quick foam roll, burn 100 calories, and the Crossover Activation routines.
At this point, I’m full-on committed. I’ve checked all the boxes leading up to that first exercise. I’m not playing hooky at this point.
Now it’s your turn. Layout your steps to success, this is will yield motivation.
Be Efficient
The most successful people in the world, it doesn’t matter the industry, are efficient.
They find ways to condense things into the most essential components to maximize their results. This ensures that the crucial things get done, and the time sucks get pushed out the door.
To further define this, productivity gurus have popularized the Pareto Principle. Stating that 20% of your efforts yield 80% of your results.
The point being, focus the bulk of your effort on the things that will create the most change. Ya know, the twenty percent.
Sorry to say, laying all that out is way above this little article’s head.
(Enough for a book in fact, one was written by Tim Ferris. He broke down different training goals and reviewed what the experts said was most important to achieving them. Not all is practical, but it does lay some good groundwork.)
However, I do have time to tell you what kills efficiency…that is complexity.
It’s the downfall for so many plans. A paper lined up with 25 exercises, 10 pieces of equipment, and 3 shoe changes—oh yeah, and this one thing I saw on Instagram.
Instead, have your essentials that get run on repeat.
Things like your core lifts, a couple key runs, your 12 nutritious food staples, your daily WOD are at the heart of it all. It doesn’t matter what else gets done, if you follow those things you will see success.
I know, variety is the spice of life, but those are merely accessories. They are not going to yield 80% of your results.
So keep the KISS principle in mind when designing your plan. It means “Keep It Simple, Stupid”, and serves as a reminder that things work best if kept simple rather than made complicated.
The Core Principles
Practical, Structured, and Efficient.
Those are the keys to consistency, which is the slam dunk to success.
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